We need to fund this Kickstarter for Ugli Presents Vol. 2, so that you can.

This thing is ready to go, it just needs the finishing touches, and to be printed.

This will be 38 fully colored pages of art from 3 artists.

Oh, you mean you didn’t realize it also would have art from Brian Allen and Joseph Freistuhler?

Well it will. A sci-fi story from Brian Allen. and a serial killer versus himself in Freistuhler’s work. 

Get the word out, do this thing, post about it on the internet, talk about it in real life. Even if you can’t contribute, you probably know someone who can, and wants to.

Click here for the Kickstarter

This is Becca the Intern, signing out.

From a layout standpoint, this page was HARD- look at the changes from pencil to final inks- added panels, extreme changes etc. etc.  but dammit- it works!  Thank god I get some great advice from people to make changes to make my work better.  The flash back middle panel serves as a stark contrast to the top and bottom.  One of the tougher pages I have done so far.

From a technical standpoint, I used alot of solid blacks – this is for the mood of this page going bad as it moves forward and to switch up the style a bit to not get too predictable- a touch of Frank Miller in the bottom panel?  It really highlights the detail work in the middle panel on both sides and acts as a solid frame for the wonderful inks in the background of Jessica at the bottom with Elijah’s dark frame all around her.  I loved the contours of the hand at the top, and the religious banned in the middle and Elijah’s hair in the foreground at the bottom.

For me this page was like a wall to get past when I pencilled it and was a barrier in the inks- It was hard, like the wall you hit creatively to get to the finish- I’m sniffing the end of the project now! I’ve included the pencils, line work and final inked rendered page for review and analysis below.

From a layout standpoint, this page was my pinup for Jessica and Sheriff- I wanted to give them that one nice (almost) full page to really show them off.  Also to establish that Jessica was the “Gangster Bitch” and in charge of the relationship as the dominant one, and the Sheriff was the passive one following her orders as she pulls the strings over all of San Quentin.  This is also in keeping with the reveal of her as the top villain of the story- you were never quite sure until now if it was her or the Sheriff in charge.  Also, Im keeping up the theme of Elijah’s eyes being hidden, he’s building up to something that’s been bottled up- a secret perhaps?

From a technical standpoint, I had alot of fun layering and texturing Elijah in panel #1- especially the texture on the beard and gun.  The main pinup had some fun shadowing effects with the ruined building and El Alacran’s body.  I used stipling to really build out Jessica’s dress, and had fun with the skin tones on her arms, the hair texturing, and her facial features which were a struggle to get that combo of “hot” and “psycho” on a slightly off profile point of view.  Finally I was really pleased with the Sheriff- from his hands, to folds of fat on his face to the wood and metal on his double barrel shotgun.

For me this page worked from a story telling standpoint, character establishment and as a technical piece- I’ve included the pencils, line work and final inked rendered page for review and analysis below. 

“Quentin Tarantino will be envious of the bloodshed”

… Indeed, we can only hope so!

And on the artistic notes from the pencilled page to the inked page- not much changed on page 16.  Of note is the highly stylized old time look of the gore, I’ve found with this particular inking style my inks make blood and guys look like an old medical drawing- which is a fun way to make a hold in a man’s gut look- so enjoy this piece as we race towards our bloody showdown and conclusion over the next 6 pages!

Technique wise- I loved the geography of the bodies and characters in the long panning shot in panel #1 and it was fun to do the detail on the dead bodies panning back towards the horizon line, and of note is the small blades of grass I added to the ground elements- arms, dropped gun, shoes etc.

Correction-wise, Elijah’s hat got lowered which corrected an error and made him seem more “angry” so that was a big improvement, and I tweaked El Alacran in panels 2 & 3 from the pencils a tad.

Confession- I was happy to kill off Chinaman, I was SO TIRED of drawing that damn outfit I designed last summer- R.I.P Xi Chou Long, it’s been a great 9 months together!

This is the “behind the scenes” anatomy of how I made this complex two page gun and sword battle.  It really is fun to see some of the small doodles get fully rendered now after all of these months!

The major changes from start to finish are Chinaman’s hand holding his sword- it ended up from the side to straight on (anatomy!) and the foot placement of rifle killer guy in the bottom right panel- the twisted up feet got changed in favor of a straight right leg and more of a falling with energy motion pose as opposed to the stutter step that I had initially tried to get.

The inking on the long hair on the top panel and blood/gunshot in the last panel are my inking highlights for me as a reader- I was really pleased how they turned out.

Page #14 is dedicated to Russ Nicholson, a childhood favorite artist of mine that I just discovered is alive and well on facebook- and he even ”liked” my art page!  This guy is a pen and ink god, and I think he has influenced me more than I realized now that I’ve been going back and looking at his work from the FIGHTING FANTASY GAMEBOOK series I first picked up when I was about 6 years old!  Thanks Russ, you still rock man, this page wouldnt be what it is without your inspiration to me as a young lad!

This page is something I am really proud of in the original execution, and I am really happy with the inks which took the pencils to a new level.  In particular the head shot panel – keeping track of a shattered skull is not easy!  The final panel with the blood arc from the face is also a highlight for me in finding motion in still life. 

I also really kept the camera moving from an odd yet complicated overhead establishing shot- to the smoking bandit’s “chest up shot” to Elijah’s dive under a hail of bullets- to the Chinaman really getting his run on in the top center panel.

Story wise-’ this page is maybe 5 seconds of action, but it’s a great quick run to page 14…..

The longer poses also turned out well, especially the last one – I was able to get some really nice shading and rendering on the shadows and skin tone (it’s the first one after the text here!)